ABSTRACT
A growing group of historians specifically interested in globalization place the effective origins of the phenomenon in the middle of the 19th century. The opening of a new phase of globalization had less impact on certain key aspects of the human experience than it did in areas like trade and travel, largely because the fundamental framework had already been set in the decades after 1500. The most important new constraint on globalization though linked to regional inequalities and imperialism was the rise of nationalism. Communications technology entered the overall mix in new ways, adding an important new element to the infrastructure of globalization. Transportation and communication formed the most obvious break between the proto-global patterns of the previous period, and the global thrusts by 1850. The main purpose of improved transportation and related policies involved enhancing global trade, though there were some military goals as well in the age of imperialism.
